Stop the closure of our community libraries

Tory controlled Northamptonshire County Council have proposed the closure of our local Libraries within the town and just beyond it.

Libraries are home to many vital services and are part of the fabric of our communities.

We believe that our libraries should remain open as they currently are.

The proposed closure of libraries are just a number of cuts announced by the Tory County Council.

Libraries under threat include;

AbingtonKingsthorpeFar CottonSt JamesWoottonMoultonRoade

My colleague Cllr Rufia Ashraf has started a campaign to save St James library.

Here is my statement in full

“These proposals will decimate the library services in our county.

In recent years libraries have become more than just borrowing books. Many things have been placed inside them such as universal services for children, training courses, birth and deaths registration and so on. So libraries have taken on more and more but now they are being threatened with closure. This is a dark day for Northampton and the County.

Much of the county is fairly rural and so the removal of all remaining bus subsidies is going to be damaging for those who will have to dig deeper in their pockets for the higher fares. Trading Standards do a great job but this service is going to be put at risk as almost half its staff could be made redundant soon.

The whole of Northamptonshire is represented by Conservative MPs, what have they done to get us a fairer funding deal from Government? The Secretary of State of Local Government, Savid Javid, came to visit County Hall last week but the Tory Administration didn’t get a single penny from it.”